


Part of the Job

by Inumama



Category: Gears of War (Video Games)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/M, Missing Scene, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-04
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:33:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27875389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inumama/pseuds/Inumama
Summary: Everyone needs someone to lean on.Baird and Sam's missing scenes between Gears of War 3 and 4. There are spoilers in here.
Relationships: Damon Baird/Samantha "Sam" Byrne
Comments: 3
Kudos: 10





	Part of the Job

_ Baird Estate - 42 AE; Present Day _

Damon Baird woke up with a start. He didn’t know what woke him. If it was a dream, he had already forgotten it, if it was a noise or movement, it wasn’t there now. He blinked a few times to let his eyes adjust and for him to orient himself with his surroundings. He was at home, in his bedroom. There was a faint light filtering in from between the closed blackout curtains. His eyes used that to focus, and the world got a little clearer. Sam was still fast asleep next to him, so he turned his head to look at her. She was sleeping on her stomach, face turned towards his. Her mouth was open just enough for her to hear her soft snores, and for a bit of drool to pool at the corner of her mouth. He smiled to himself. If she woke up to him staring at her, he would just tell her that she was snoring too loud and woke him up. 

Then her eyebrows furrowed slightly and she closed her mouth for a moment before her features softened again. He wondered what she was dreaming about. She could usually remember her bizarre dreams, and her nightmares had subsided greatly over the years. It wasn’t very often anymore that he had to sit with her while she calmed down after a nasty one. He resisted the urge to reach out and push the little lock of hair that had fallen to slightly cover her eye. He didn’t want to wake her. 

While sleeping, Sam looked almost like how she did when he had first met her on Vectes. Youthful, and full of life. Not that she wasn’t still lively and beautiful. She had aged with plenty of grace whereas everything went downhill for him the day he turned forty-five. He turned his head back up and looked at the ceiling, remembering the first day he saw her. She had been helping unload supplies off of a raven. She caught his eye because female gears weren’t common and stuck out like sore thumbs, especially ones who didn’t wear helmets. He had been such an asshole to her. He still kicked himself for turning down the shot and invitation to play Navy “chess” she had given him. He wondered if they would have gotten together sooner if he had just taken his head out of his ass. Oh well, that was all water under the bridge now. She only brought it up whenever she wanted to tease him about it. 

Baird closed his eyes and tried to go back to sleep. He knew it was going to be impossible now, once he was awake, he was awake. His mind instead chose to wander, thinking of his life with Sam. 

_ Anvil Gate - 17 AE; Six months after the end of the Locust War _

Sam was humming as she took apart a valve from her bike to clean it. Baird was watching her, amused that she had made herself so at home in his garage. He had been wrong about her, she was so much more than a mouthy bitch who tried to be tougher than any guy. If someone had asked him months ago if he’d be willing to share his garage; his personal, private workspace, with Sam Byrne he would have laughed in their face. Never in a million years had he thought that he would one day consider Sam to be part of his close friends circle. She had worked her way in there over the past six months, quickly becoming a big part of his life. 

When she first came to him asking if she could use some of the garage space to work on a rat bike she had liberated and claimed for herself, he told her to get lost. He didn’t want to give up his peaceful sanctuary. She was understanding, which surprised him. He expected her to call him some name for not letting her get her way. She came back a few days later, this time asking for a specific tool she couldn’t find. He allowed her to borrow it. She came back more after that, coming to borrow tools, return tools, ask for advice, bring lunch or dinner for them. Finally, he had caved and decided that she could use a corner of his garage. He played it off as wanting to keep a closer eye on his tools to make sure that she didn’t break them when in reality it was because he looked forward to when she would come by, and wanted to make sure she always came. 

Once she started working in the garage with him, he learned a lot about her. She was smart and handy. She could fix things, although she wasn’t quite on his level, it still impressed him. And she enjoyed it. She liked working on machines and vehicles. Usually, it was just her bike, but sometimes he caught her working on or tinkering with something he collected and left lying around in the garage. She helped him come up with solutions when he couldn’t get APCs up and running fast enough. Sam was something else, that was for sure.

“Why are you staring at me?” Sam asked, glancing up from her work to look at him, tilting her head slightly. He was ripped from his thoughts, he didn’t realize she was paying attention to him.

He got a little flustered and looked away, “Just thinking, you’re a woman after my own fucking heart, you know that?” He didn’t look to see what her reaction was.

_ New Ephyra Encampment - 18 AE _

“I can’t believe I agreed to come here.” Baird said, shivering. They had decided to move away from Anvil Gate to really start rebuilding society near the old capital. New Ephyra was what they were calling it. It was supposed to be inspiring, the COG was still here, even after the near destruction of everything. Baird didn’t care about any of that right now. He was sure his nose was going to fall off in this cold. 

“Stop your complaining.” Sam said as she came out of the tent.  _ The tent that they shared _ , Baird reminded himself. “It’s probably at least twenty degrees colder back in Anvil Gate.” She sat next to him in front of the fire that was burning to warm the section of tents that theirs was in. 

He knew she was right, he spent one winter at Anvil Gate and never wanted to do it again. “At least there we had buildings with better insulation and heating than this.” New Ephyra didn’t have many buildings yet. Right now, the only buildings were the government building and the hospital. It might not have been much, but it was a start. 

Sam did move slightly so she was sitting close to him, she must have been cold too. Baird wrapped an arm around her to pull her in. “I have some ideas,” he started, “If I can get my hands on some supplies...maybe by next winter we won’t be freezing our asses off.” 

“Oh?” Sam was intrigued, turning her attention away from the dancing flames to look at his face. “Let’s hear it then. What ideas do you have?” Baird grinned and started telling her his ideas for robots that would make building infrastructure faster and more efficient than having humans do it themselves. 

_ New Ephyra - 20 AE _

Baird heard the door to his workshop creak open. He was working on a better design for the bot that spread concrete for sidewalks. He didn’t know what time it was, all he knew was that it was late and his head was killing him. Arms slid around his neck and a face bumped against his head. “Working hard?” Sam’s soft voice filled his ears. 

“What do you think?” Baird winced, his voice sounded a lot sharper than he wanted it to. Thankfully, Sam didn’t take it the wrong way. She chuckled and kissed his cheek. 

“I came to force you to come to bed.” She said, “It’s almost two in the morning.” Late nights were no oddity for him, but Sam made sure he was in bed before midnight most nights. The only time she let him stay up later was when she knew he had a project. “And, Marcus called. Anya had the baby.” 

Baird sat up straighter at that. “She did?” He knew the call was coming any day. Anya was on her maternity leave, doing most of her work from her home outside of the city walls. “Is everything okay?”

Sam nodded, “He called just before I came to get you. Anya and James, that’s what they named him, are doing fine. Healthy, happy.” It was a relief. Baird knew Marcus had been nervous about the whole thing, even though the man didn’t show it. 

Baird let out a breath. “That’s good. That’s great! Any idea when we can go visit? Send our warm regards?” He wasn’t much of a baby or kid person, but this was a big deal. And he wanted to go congratulate their friends. And he had a new nephew from the sound of it, he had to go see him. 

“Marcus said we can come out tomorrow.” Sam said. “We can take a raven out, bring gifts and say hello.” She was excited, Baird saw it on her face when he looked at her. She and Anya were best friends, and Sam had been excited for this baby ever since Anya announced that she was expecting. 

“We’ll go tomorrow, then.” He wasn’t going to argue with her and make her put it off for a couple of days. “So we should go to bed, like you said a couple of minutes ago.” He shut down his computer terminal and got up. He took Sam’s hand as they walked back to their home. 

The raven flight the next day was full of excited chatter. They ended up taking Cole, Hoffman, and Bernie with them too. Baird hoped that Marcus and Anya were ready for a full lineup of visitors today. He could already see the pissed off expression on Marcus’s face when they all tried to bust their way in all at once. 

  
Sam had been the first one off the raven, which amazed Baird because she had been flying the damn thing. She and Bernie had been having a playful argument on who was going to get to hold the baby first on the flight over. Sam’s tactic was to be the first one in there in order to beat everyone else. 

Marcus let them all inside, not at all surprised by the crowd that had come to visit them. He led them to the room Anya was in and she smiled when they all came inside. “Hello everyone.” She said, cradling the swaddled baby in her arms. “Meet James Dominic Fenix.” She angled him so they could all see. 

  
Sam and Bernie were on either side of the bed to get a look at him with Cole standing close behind them. “Oh, Anya, he’s beautiful!” Bernie said, reaching to tap his little nose with her finger. Baird stood back with Hoffman and Marcus, he didn’t feel the need to get up there and crowd Anya any more than she already was. 

“May I hold him?” Sam asked, as if Anya would say no. Anya nodded at her and helped her get James in her arms just right. Sam bounced him a couple of times and said hello to him in a high-pitched baby voice. After cooing over him for a few moments Sam looked up and met Baird’s eyes. The sparkle they had in them made his stomach knot. 

_ Baird Estate - 21 AE _

Baird closed the front door behind him and hung his jacket up on the hook by the door. He came home for lunch, and to grab Sam. He had been working on their little pet project for most of the morning, and had made a slight breakthrough that he couldn’t wait to show her. 

The two of them had been designing and working on prototype code for a new bot, one almost humanlike. Their ideas for these unnamed bots were endless, they just had to figure out the programming and the AI for them. When they started, they figured it would be easy, but it quickly became a pain in the ass. It wasn’t a necessary or contracted project, so it got pushed to the back burner and the two of them decided to work on it whenever they had a lull in other business or wanted to take a break and work on something different. 

He went to their kitchen, knowing that’s where Sam would be around this time. He was about to go wrap his arms around her from behind as she made her lunch when an array of pamphlets and brochures on the counter caught his eye. The one on top had the words “COG Fertility Program” emblazoned at the top, above a picture of the “ideal” family. “Um…” He said, not sure what to make of it. “What is all of this?” 

Sam sighed and shook her head. “I went to visit Anya today...she had that protege of hers with her...Mina, I think. In charge of the fertility program. Found out that we don’t have kids...and made sure I left with plenty of information.” 

“Oh, I see.” That made him feel a bit better. They never talked about kids, but his mind was suddenly filled with images of the look on Sam’s face every time she held James.

“Yeah…” Sam said, focused completely on the apple she had been cutting when he came in the room. There was a very awkward and stuffy silence between them now. She was the one that broke it. “What do you think about it?” She rolled her shoulders, Baird knew that was one of her tells when she was nervous, which instantly put him on edge.

“What do I think about what?” He chose to play dumb. He knew what she was talking about, he didn’t want to acknowledge it though. He was afraid of what she might think of it. 

He could see her frown even though she wasn’t looking at him. “The fertility program, kids, a family?” She said. She was going there, and he wished they could communicate telepathically, so they could know what the other thought and felt without having to voice it. 

He bit back wanting to ask her what she thought, because she would tell him that she asked first. “I don’t think much of it. Growing the gene pool is important to rebuilding society.” But he never wanted kids. “What do you think of it?” 

Sam turned so they were looking at each other face to face. The expression she wore was one he had never seen before, and didn’t know if he ever wanted to see again. She looked so torn. “I think we should give it a try.” She retreated in on herself a little. “It’s not a guaranteed thing, but we could try, and everyone would get off my back.” 

Baird stayed silent, he had seen this coming the second she brought it up. “Sam, if you want to go through it, I won’t say no. But I’d make a terrible father.” He was just going to clear the air of that right now. He’d give her the world, and if this is the world she wanted, who was he to say no?

“I think you’d be a good father.” Was the last thing Sam said on the topic before turning back to her apple.

_ New Ephyra - 22 AE  _

It was official, this was his favorite project ever. They did it. Their personal project finally came to fruition. It was basic and bland, but the bot was perfect in their eyes. Sam had lovingly named him Sparky, since they hadn’t come up with a name for this model of bot, if they were even going to make it a model series. Sparky came up to his shoulders and had the build of a human. They didn’t make him look human though, they wanted it to be obvious that it was a robot. 

“Sparky, pick up the socks and put them in the basket please.” Sam said. They were testing his AI programming. She had scattered random clothes around the floor in front of them. Sparky’s task might have been simple for a human, but they had been going at this for about three hours now. The first time he picked up the basket and put it on Sam’s head, then started putting the clothes in her lap. They tweaked the code and tried again. That time he picked up all of the shirts and put those in the basket. “Come on, third time’s a charm.” Sam said encouragingly. 

Baird was standing off to the side, watching it happen. He could see things he needed to fix, his moves were stiff and jerky and whenever he went to pick something up he missed it a few times before getting a grip on it. Which was what he was currently doing, struggling to pick up a pair of Sam’s jeans.

“No, no no.” She said. “The socks. Socks.” Looks like it was going to take more than three tries to get the code right for this task. He didn’t mind though, he’d tweak this as many times as needed. “Cancel request.” Sam said with a breathy sigh. She went over to the computer terminal and started typing away. 

Baird went and sat at the computer next to her. “I’m going to see if I can fix some of the lag between what his eyes see and how his arms react. It might be a hardware problem though.” Sam hummed, letting him know that she had heard him. 

They worked in peaceful silence for a while. The only noise was the sound of their keys clicking and the hum and word in thought mumbled. But Sam broke the silence, not even looking away from her computer screen. “I’m going to drop out of the fertility program.” She said, matter of factly. 

That made Baird stop everything he was doing and turn to look at her. “You are?” Yeah, they’d been enrolled in it for about a year now, and it hadn’t worked for them yet. But he didn’t think she was going to give up on it. 

Sam still didn’t look at him. “I had my fifth round of the shots yesterday. I’m tired of my hands and feet being swollen and sore all the time.” She flexed her hand to make her point. “I told you there’d be no guarantees. But we tried.” 

“Yeah…” He said, turning back to his computer. “We tried.” 

_ New Ephyra - 24 AE _

The Sparky models were in production now, except they were now called Shepherds. Anya had been tickled by Sparky when she came to visit one day, and suggested that they get a few for the city to be used as guides and information providers. Baird hadn’t expected that, but with some programming edits and design edits, they had their first proper Shepherd AI. 

The physical body was a different story though. Sparky’s look had been “terrifying” in Sam’s opinion, so she worked on making something a little less scary. He let that be her job, he could make schematics, but any sort of cosmetic look was all her. She had that creativity and understanding. It was another reason why they worked so well together. He couldn’t ask for a better business partner and girlfriend. 

The Shepherd’s body was hanging up on a couple of hooks over by one of the workbenches. Sam had made cloth arms and legs to hide some of the cords and hydraulics. She also made articulated hands, so instead of the pinchers that Sparky had, the Shepherd had what looked like gloved hands. Currently she was working on the face, welding small pieces of metal together. Sparky’s face had a single camera lens eye on the front of it, which Sam said might scare some civilians, so she was trying to make it look more approachable. 

She finished the prototype Shepherd’s body a week later. Baird had it hooked up to his computer system to install the initial AI. Sam was still looking over the bot as he filled it with data. “I think this has to be our best work yet.” She said. It was the dream the two of them had started three years ago, their frustrations and failures and small successes finally adding up to something big. 

“Me too.” Baird said. The progress bar was still only two-thirds of the way full. The prototype install always took the longest. “Can you imagine what these guys will be doing in five years? Ten?” They might be starting their life as tour guides and trash cleaners, but who knows what they’d be able to accomplish later on. 

An hour later, the computer beeped to alert them that it had finished the install on the Shepherd. Baird and Sam both stood in front of the robot they had created. Baird unhooked the connector cables from the back of its head and the two of them stood back and held their breath. A few moments later, the indicator lights on the chest and face of the robot lit up and stayed glowing. A good sign. 

The bot lifted its head and stood at full height and at attention. “Deebee Shepherd Online.” It said, in its metallic voice, that sounded only slightly like the man who had recorded it. “How can I assist you, citizen?” 

“Yes!” Sam cheered from next to him. “Yes!” She said again, happy that everything worked so far. No doubt there would be bugs that they would find while testing the Shepherd’s capabilities, but this right here, was a victory. Sam pulled Baird in for a kiss and they separated, smiling at each other. It was a victory they accomplished together. 

_ New Ephyra - 26 AE _

“You ever going to marry that woman, baby?” Cole asked, taking a few bites of his burger. Baird and Cole met up for lunch as often as they could. Which as they got older felt like less and less. Baird didn’t like it, but they were both busy. Cole had a family, and a Thrashball league to deal with, and he had his business. 

“I’m hoping by “that woman” you mean Sam?” Baird and Cole had gone through this conversation several times. “Unless I have another woman I don’t know about?” He didn’t know why his friend didn’t believe him when he told him that they didn’t want to get married. Neither of them. 

“Yes I mean Sam.” Cole said. “You two just need to do it. What if something happens to you? Is she on all your deeds? The business? The house? Do you even have a will?” The genuine concern in Cole’s voice worried him. 

“I haven’t thought about that really. What brought this on? I’m only 46.” Saying that out loud made him wince. He was getting old. “Did you find out that I have some terminal disease or something?” It was a dark subject to joke about, but Cole came out of the gate swinging with these questions. 

“No, but unless you’re married or her name’s on your stuff, Sam would be out in the cold if something happened to you.” Cole said. “I don’t want anything to happen to you or to her.” Baird stayed quiet, processing what he said. It made sense. But now their usually lighthearted lunch had taken a somber turn. Cole fixed that right fast. “Sorry baby, been thinking about this kind of stuff a lot, having to think of Hana’s future and all. Let me show you what she’s been making in school.” 

After he got back home from having lunch with Cole, he went into his home office and opened the safe to look at all of his legal paperwork. Surely Sam was on everything. He knew for a fact that she was on the bank accounts, all of them. She had to be on the business books and on the house deed. They started DBi together, and they bought the house together. He flipped through the papers. “Holy shit.” He said to himself. “I’m an idiot.” Nowhere on any of the paperwork was Sam’s name. None of it. Not even a mention. And a will? No, he didn’t have one of those. He was going to rectify that. He couldn’t imagine anything happening to himself, but he’d be damned if he was going to fuck up the life he gave Sam by not giving her a failsafe for if he died.

_ Baird Estate - 27 AE _

This was an awful storm cell. It had been raining for the past week, almost non-stop. The poor weather put everyone in a poor mood. It was summer, it was supposed to be warm and sunny. But instead the skies were dark and there was no desire to go outside. Baird didn’t mind a rainy day here and there, but this long was frustrating even for him. He knew it was even more frustrating for Sam. She loved this time of year. He could hardly get her out of the gardens most days. 

He sat next to her on the couch. She was reading a book, and he glanced at the cover. “A Midnight Escape to Desire.” He rolled his eyes. She loved these awful romance novels. He had read a few pages of one over her shoulder one day while they were snuggling. “I don’t understand why you read those books.” He said.

“Shut up. This is a good part.” She said, not even flicking her eyes up to look at him. That made him huff and glance away. But he looked back at the cover of her book. It had a picture of a woman on it, wearing a red flowy dress looking up at a man with long, flowing hair. He instinctively reached up and ran his hand over his shaved head. His hair had started thinning a few years ago, and he had decided that instead of succumbing to  _ balding  _ he would just bite the bullet and make the decision before his age did it for him. He still missed his hair. 

Sam sighed dreamily from her spot next to him. He returned his attention to her, still engrossed in that book. “What’s going on in it?” He didn’t care for books and reading unless it was something informational. He preferred working with his hands, not disappearing into fictional worlds. 

“Proclamations of love, all that mushy shit you wouldn’t care for.” Sam said. He wasn’t much for lots of physical affection, nor was he much of a “shout it from the mountaintops” guy either. But that never seemed to bother Sam. He loved her, she loved him, they both knew it. Did it actually bother her? Did she want him to loudly proclaim it to her? He didn’t think he could do it, even if he wanted to. 

“Ah.” He said. “Should have guessed.” He grabbed one of the magazines they had on the coffee table and crossed his legs to read it. Might as well do something other than sit here watching Sam read a book. But as he flipped open to a random page he noticed that Sam was no longer staring at her book, she was staring at him. But when he turned to meet her gaze, she looked back at the book. Oh, he knew this game. 

Baird went back to the magazine, keeping Sam’s face in his peripheral vision. She was staring at him again, that look in her eyes. He turned his head and she looked away again, but he could see the slight curve of her lips. He wouldn’t make a move though, it was always more fun when she came for him. He returned to the magazine, not even paying attention to the words on the glossy page. 

Sam quietly closed the book and set it on the coffee table. She reached out to him and whispered his name. “Damon…” She pushed the magazine off his lap and to the floor before wrapping her arms around him and pressing their lips together. 

Baird put one of his hands on her hip and held her there, helping her stay secure. God, he loved this, he loved her. He deepened their kiss, and was about to let his hands wander when their phone rang loudly. They broke apart. Their phone didn’t ring often, usually they got emails or radio summons. When the phone rang, it was important. Sam rolled back, getting off his lap and she just looked so good, he regretted getting up to get the phone. 

“This is Baird.” He said when he answered the phone, hoping his voice sounded somewhat normal. It was Marcus on the other line, and he didn’t sound too good. “Yeah...we can, what’s going on?” He turned to look at Sam and gave her a look and a slight shake of the head. “Oh shit.” Sam was now looking at him with her curious head tilt. “Yeah...Yeah we’ll be there.” 

“What is it?” Sam asked after he hung up the phone. “Who was it?” He didn’t want to tell her, but he had to.   
  
“It was Marcus...he...we have to get to the Stroud Estate. It’s Anya...she’s dead.” 

_ New Ephyra - 35 AE _

First Minister Mina Jinn was difficult. And that was putting it nicely. Something about her made Baird’s blood boil slightly. He didn’t like the way she worked. It made him miss Anya even more, everything had really slipped after her death. He closed his eyes, her death had been hard on everyone, and it still hurt, even him. First Minister Dyer had gone and fucked up everything that Anya had worked so hard to achieve. Baird wasn’t a politician though, and had no interest in becoming one, so he kept his nose out of it the best he could and focused on his business. Then, Jinn came in and made it worse. 

In good news, the Shepherds had gained quite a bit of popularity. Shopkeepers, maintenance crews, more advanced cleanup crews, museum tour guides, school assistants. They were doing almost anything a human could do. Cole even joked about making a Thrashball team out of bots. Baird couldn’t be more proud. 

But he drew the line somewhere. “Weapons?” He was shocked, “No, we can’t equip the Shepherds with weapons!” He couldn’t believe what First Minister Jinn was asking him to do. “The Shepherds aren’t made to handle weapons.”

“I’m not saying we hand them Lancers, Damon.” Mina Jinn said smoothly. “We create a non-lethal weapon for them. Police work is so dangerous, Shepherds can’t feel pain, they can’t make bad calls. It would help our citizens have a better life.” 

“They can’t make any calls! They take orders, not make decisions!” Baird said. “Even with non-lethal weapons...it would be disastrous.” He ran his hands over his head. “And I don’t make weapons.” That wasn’t completely true, he had designed some just for fun, but he didn’t have any physical prototypes, just drawn ideas. “I won’t do it.” 

Jinn sighed, “Let me remind you that your contract states that you will bend to the government’s wishes. We purchase a lot of your products already, Damon. The weapon I’m asking you to create is nothing harmful, just something to...enforce order.” She stood up from the desk and went to her window. “I’m sure the Shepherd’s AI can be changed to give them a little more...personality, so to speak.” 

Baird opened his mouth to argue more. This was a terrible idea. The absolute worst idea. But he closed it and resigned. “Yeah. It’s possible, but it isn’t a good idea. They’re robots, not people.” 

Jinn turned to him with a smile. “Good, I expect concepts on my desk next week. Thank you, Damon. That will be all.” 

_ Baird Estate - 39 AE _

“This is never what I intended Sam.” Baird said, looking down at the schematics for yet another one of First Minister Jinn’s requests. She wanted larger Shepherds, better for controlling larger crowds. There had been some civil unrest, lots more than he had ever seen. People were unhappy, and instead of listening and fixing problems like Anya would have, Jinn’s approach was to smother to attempt to put out the flames. And he was enabling her. It made him sick to his stomach.

“I know, darling.” Sam said, her hand running across his back. “It’s not ideal, but given the circumstances, It’s out of your hands, out of our hands.” She shrugged and started rubbing his shoulders. They were tense, this felt nice. “It’s her choice, she’s the elected leader, we’re just the contracted help.” 

Sam had a way of helping him calm down, she was good at talking sense into him. He would be forever grateful to have her by his side. Sometimes, he didn’t know how he had gotten so lucky. “I know you’re right, but I still don’t like it. Shepherds, hell, all the Deebees were made to help, not frighten. You designed them to not be scary, and yet here they are, being equipped with guns and made to frighten the same civilians you thought about in their design.” 

All of the sudden it made him angry. All the love, all the love and care he and Sam put into these bots was being stripped away, all because the First Minister wanted complete control. “The Shepherds are our fucking children. Makes sense now why Marcus is so against JD joining the COG army.” 

“They are our children, aren’t they?” Sam said, a soft smile on her face. “But like JD, at a certain point, parents can’t control them. Of course, the Shepherds didn’t have a say in the matter, but it’s a lot like that.” She propped her head on his shoulder. “Please don’t beat yourself up over this Damon. You’re doing your job, just like I am, just like any of us are.” 

“Yeah, thanks Sam.” He said, taking her hand and kissing her fingers. 

_ Baird Estate - 41 AE _

Baird stormed into the main room of the house, slamming the door behind him. “It happened.” He said, throwing his hands up in a gesture of defeat. “Saw the writing on the fucking wall. And it happened.” He was beyond upset, he was furious. “I told her this is what would happen if we gave the Shepherds weapons and she didn’t listen.” He dropped down into a chair and held his head in his hands. 

“What happened?” Sam said, cautiously. She hadn’t gone to the shop today, she wanted to do some things around the house, and she never watched the news. “Damon?” 

Baird shook his head. “There was a protest in Settlement 2 today. Jinn decided to send a small squad of gears with three squads of Shepherds.” He could feel his throat clenching up with the disgust and rage that threatened to spill out. He kept the names of the soldiers to himself, not wanting to upset Sam more than this already would. 

“It happened...our Shepherds killed people.” 

_ Baird Estate - 42 AE; Present Day - Three months before the Swarm Invasion _

Baird’s eyes opened as the sunlight brightened the bedroom more than the city lights had done earlier that night. He must have fallen back asleep, lucky him. He glanced over to Sam’s side of the bed, she was gone. He must have slept hard for her to have gotten out of bed without him knowing. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, trying to get rid of the signs of sleep. 

The bedroom door opened, and Sam came in, wearing the robe he got her for her birthday a few months ago. “Good morning, sleepyhead,” she said, handing him one of the mugs of coffee she held. “You must’ve been tired. I’m glad I didn’t wake you.” 

Baird took the coffee and then took in the sight of her. Her hair was still mussed from sleep, but she was beautiful, better than anything he deserved. “I love you Sam.” He said, “Thanks for the coffee. And for being there, for everything.” 

“I love you too Damon. And, it’s just part of the job.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!   
> Please let me know what you thought!


End file.
